You've got to lock up the bad guys in order to keep us all safe. Right? It seems right, but it's not so simple. NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow (@RachelBarkow) discusses her book Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration. Prof. Barkow is an expert in criminal justice reform. This conversation is full of surprising information about how our collective zeal to punish has ended up making us less safe, and has actually made crime worse, not better. Listen to this conversation and then go get the book. It's worth your time, and these issues affect all of us, even if only indirectly.  

What we have learned is that some of our attempts to keep the community safe have backfired. In our efforts to punish terrible things, we have swept up a lot of people who have done less-terrible things, even if they aren't perfectly innocent. 

Criminal justice is a tough issue, filled with nuance. This discussion embraces the difficulty and nuance, and explores ways that we can make things better.